A Book of Days for Lent

For those who wish to receive them well, great acts of profoundness require a time of preparation. Thus, early in the history of Christianity, we established a season of letting go (forgiveness), of untangling (sin), of re-focusing ourselves (spiritual reading and practices), and of the imitation of Christ (works of mercy) to awaken us for Holy Week and Easter. Lent, whose root means “Spring”—as in one of the four seasons—is a natural time of greater light in the world and of unstoppable growth surging through all living things.

This book is a vade mecum (a book “to go with me”), written by non-profit leaders seeking to move and to guide us toward the light. Each writer composes his or her Day so that the reader is helped to observe Lent—“I will honor Lent in my heart and try to keep it all the year. . . . I will not shut out the lessons it teaches.” And by observing this season more faithfully, and with more understanding, we hope for each reader to experience a deeper reception of the great gift of God in Jesus, who gave himself that we might live, and “that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you” (John 17:21).

All who have contributed to this book recognize they are part of a much larger community. A community that seeks to nurture and express its friendship with people who are generous in securing common graces for the common good; with whom they are colleague-companions; and through whom it finds the fulfillment of its mission and the gladness that comes from gifts well-targeted and responsibly received and used.